I read this week about MIT's open course ware. Basically, professors at MIT have made their educational materials available to everyone through their open course ware website for free. This is awesome! I went to the open course ware website, http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm, and clicked on the high-school link. A professor from MIT had posted a series of videos specifically to help students with the basics of calculus. What a great resource for high-school students. There was also a link on the high-school page for teachers. Available on this page were resources tailored to help high-school teachers in their classrooms.
If one of our goals as a nation is to be a leader in education shouldn't we follow the example of professors at MIT and make educational resources available to everyone at no cost? Is it therefore ethical to make money off of education?
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Cloud Computing
I am really warming up to this relatively new "cloud computing" trend. This week in my Distance Learning Tools class we learned about ustream and sliderocket. Sliderocket is a web based program that allows users to create and store slide show presentations on the internet and ustream is also a web based program that allows users to create and store videos on the internet.
I currently use the iwork software to create all my documents (pages) and my slideshows (keynote). Pages and keynote are great programs, but when I make something I have to save it to the computer on which I am working. If I want to share I need to save the file on a flash drive or email it. Just recently I have started using google docs, and although not as eloquent as iwork, it is easy to use and I can access my work anywhere over the internet. Plus, it is free!
What other cloud computing programs are out there that I don't know about?
I currently use the iwork software to create all my documents (pages) and my slideshows (keynote). Pages and keynote are great programs, but when I make something I have to save it to the computer on which I am working. If I want to share I need to save the file on a flash drive or email it. Just recently I have started using google docs, and although not as eloquent as iwork, it is easy to use and I can access my work anywhere over the internet. Plus, it is free!
What other cloud computing programs are out there that I don't know about?
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Emotionally Committing to Learning
There are so many positive things I want to happen in my classroom. If I can help my students to be emotionally connected to learning than I think a lot of the goals I have as a teacher will naturally follow. I think that if a student is emotionally committed to learning than this will be the students primary motivation to learn. This might be the best example of intrinsic motivation which is a higher and more enduring motivation than any type of extrinsic motivation that students may have due to rewards or grades.
The important question is how to emotionally commit students to learning. I teach middle school social studies and to me it is all about relevance. It is about connecting history and geography to the student through issues that the student can see and understand and feel. I am a big proponent of using the computer lab across the hallway from my classroom. I think that the computer and the internet can maybe be the most powerful tool to connect history and geography to individual students emotionally. If students can be immersed in history and geography using academic sites on the internet and then use current event and news sites to learn about world issues today this can happen. I have included a section of a great article below addressing this concept of emotionally committing to learning written by
"We must engage learners from the very beginning. What we do currently under the guise of "course introductions" is, at best, woefully inappropriate. At worst, it's downright learner abuse! Good introductions engage learners' hearts as well as their brains.
One of the worst sins we commit is the pre-test. Why should learners have to take questions on material we've already determined they likely shouldn't know? There's no valid reason other than to allow learners to skip some sections of a course's content.
We know that learning is more effective when learners are emotionally committed. So in addition to addressing individual learning styles, we must address motivation. We should make learners see how new skills will help them actually do things, beyond whatever value others may place on these skills.
As an additional element of emotional maintenance, set expectations about what's to come. Let learners know how much time they'll be spending, and what their expectations should be about the overall experience. This helps learners maintain focus throughout the experience. If they know ahead of time there's a tough stretch ahead, for example, they're much more likely to persevere."
To read the rest of this excellent article follow the link below:
http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=best_practices&article=35-1
The important question is how to emotionally commit students to learning. I teach middle school social studies and to me it is all about relevance. It is about connecting history and geography to the student through issues that the student can see and understand and feel. I am a big proponent of using the computer lab across the hallway from my classroom. I think that the computer and the internet can maybe be the most powerful tool to connect history and geography to individual students emotionally. If students can be immersed in history and geography using academic sites on the internet and then use current event and news sites to learn about world issues today this can happen. I have included a section of a great article below addressing this concept of emotionally committing to learning written by
"We must engage learners from the very beginning. What we do currently under the guise of "course introductions" is, at best, woefully inappropriate. At worst, it's downright learner abuse! Good introductions engage learners' hearts as well as their brains.
One of the worst sins we commit is the pre-test. Why should learners have to take questions on material we've already determined they likely shouldn't know? There's no valid reason other than to allow learners to skip some sections of a course's content.
We know that learning is more effective when learners are emotionally committed. So in addition to addressing individual learning styles, we must address motivation. We should make learners see how new skills will help them actually do things, beyond whatever value others may place on these skills.
As an additional element of emotional maintenance, set expectations about what's to come. Let learners know how much time they'll be spending, and what their expectations should be about the overall experience. This helps learners maintain focus throughout the experience. If they know ahead of time there's a tough stretch ahead, for example, they're much more likely to persevere."
To read the rest of this excellent article follow the link below:
http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=best_practices&article=35-1
Keeping Things Lean and Light
"Do I have to read all of this Mr. Myers?" This is a very common phrase I hear when I take my students to the computer lab to do online social studies activities. Even if the reading is only a few paragraphs long students complain. This is because of the lack of good instructional design with many online educational resources that makes academic reading appear boring to students. As I look for online resources to help my students learn about people and places around the world I now consciously try to find sites that are appealing to look at. If a resource has color, short and friendly reading segments, and photos or other media my students are much more likely to be interested in the content and not complain about the assignment. Here is a link to a national PBS site about India that I think "keeps things lean and light" for the learner. http://www.pbs.org/thestoryofindia/. What do you think?
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Web 2.0 and Collaboration
Recently our social studies department at Mountain Ridge Junior High designed a website. We used google sites for the template and so far we have created a google calendar, created a blog, a file cabinet, and different pages for the different social studies classes we teach. On the calendar we mark the dates and times of our collaboration meetings and create an agenda in the details of the event. On the blog we keep minutes of what we are doing in our collaboration meetings. In the file cabinet we upload lesson plans and other materials we want to share within our department. With the class specific pages we are working on posting our learning targets, goals, objectives, policies, and interventions.
During the week we know we can easily go to our department website to access what we need, whether that is a reminder about the upcoming meeting or a file we had uploaded previously. We have invited the administration at our school to view our website so they can see what we are up to. It is also a way for us to be accountable to both the administration and to the parents of the kids we teach.
I think this is a great use of web 2.0. We love it in our department and it has helped with our collaboration and brought us together more as a team. If you want to visit our website the link is http://sites.google.com/site/mrjhsocialstudies. What do you think? Any ideas on what would make the website better?
During the week we know we can easily go to our department website to access what we need, whether that is a reminder about the upcoming meeting or a file we had uploaded previously. We have invited the administration at our school to view our website so they can see what we are up to. It is also a way for us to be accountable to both the administration and to the parents of the kids we teach.
I think this is a great use of web 2.0. We love it in our department and it has helped with our collaboration and brought us together more as a team. If you want to visit our website the link is http://sites.google.com/site/mrjhsocialstudies. What do you think? Any ideas on what would make the website better?
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Web 2.0 and the classroom
A few days ago Michael Pratt, an LDS seminary principal at Lone Peak High School in Highland, Utah, pleaded guilty to two counts of object rape and one count of forcible sodomy, first-degree felonies, and one count of forcible sex abuse, a second-degree felony. He will be sentenced on August 31, 2010. It is unfortunate that for the many good and moral teachers in the community one scumbag like Pratt can not only steal the spotlight but can also warrant the creation of stricter and more invasive policy within school districts. Thanks Pratt. Did it really take you all this time to realize that you were guilty, or were you still convinced that god was okay with your sexual rendezvous with a minor under the guise of a religious example.
I teach at Mountain Ridge Junior High, which is one of the middle schools that feeds into Lone Peak High School. Just recently in a faculty meeting our principal addressed the teachers of Mountain Ridge about Facebook. Paula, our principal, stated that teachers should not be Facebook friends with any student currently attending a school in the Alpine School District. I can definitely see the merit in this policy and the protection this policy can offer teachers against allegations of inappropriate relationships with students, but the timing of this policy seems to coincide conveniently with the pervert actions of Pratt.
I have a Facebook page and for awhile I would accept friend invites from former students who were now attending the high school. I saw this as a way to keep in touch with these former students whom I cared about. These are the same kids that I had spent so much quality time in the classroom teaching, mentoring, and advising. I had devoted time to planning lessons that could help these kids learn not only history and geography but to be better individuals, classier citizens, and empathetic young people to different people around the world. Some of these kids looked up to me and depended on me to remain constant in their lives over the duration of the school year.
Before I started accepting friend invites from former students I thought about what would be the best thing to do with this situation. I decided that I would not accept a friend invite from any student currently enrolled at Mountain Ridge Junior High. There would be no need to do this because these students had access to me before, during, and after school in my classroom, through my school email, or by calling to my classroom phone. But to my former students they did not have this accessibility, nor did they need it. In fact, it would be inappropriate to have former students calling my classroom, coming regularly to visit my classroom (although once in a while to catch up I think is okay) or emailing me. I think these types of communications should be academic. Facebook, on the other hand, would be a way to keep in touch with former basketball players whom I coached. They could tell me about upcoming games. Maybe that student who's father committed suicide just wants to check in like they did the school year when the tragedy happened.
I am starting to ramble so I will try and finish. Is Facebook outside of the scope of a public educator? I am conflicted with this, although I accept the current Alpine School District policy and see the merit and judgement for the policy. What is next? There are some really neat web 2.0 tools out there that are already great for college students and professors (youtube, blogs, wikis, etc.). Are these doomed at the secondary level? I know that the Facebook account I maintained was strictly blocked as to what my former students could see, hear, or watch with regards to my personal life. This ensured my privacy and the appropriateness of what my former students knew about me. It maintained a level of integrity which is vital in the educational profession. Will the present trends in school district policy hamper more appropriate classroom web 2.0 tools like wikispaces or classroom blogs?
I teach at Mountain Ridge Junior High, which is one of the middle schools that feeds into Lone Peak High School. Just recently in a faculty meeting our principal addressed the teachers of Mountain Ridge about Facebook. Paula, our principal, stated that teachers should not be Facebook friends with any student currently attending a school in the Alpine School District. I can definitely see the merit in this policy and the protection this policy can offer teachers against allegations of inappropriate relationships with students, but the timing of this policy seems to coincide conveniently with the pervert actions of Pratt.
I have a Facebook page and for awhile I would accept friend invites from former students who were now attending the high school. I saw this as a way to keep in touch with these former students whom I cared about. These are the same kids that I had spent so much quality time in the classroom teaching, mentoring, and advising. I had devoted time to planning lessons that could help these kids learn not only history and geography but to be better individuals, classier citizens, and empathetic young people to different people around the world. Some of these kids looked up to me and depended on me to remain constant in their lives over the duration of the school year.
Before I started accepting friend invites from former students I thought about what would be the best thing to do with this situation. I decided that I would not accept a friend invite from any student currently enrolled at Mountain Ridge Junior High. There would be no need to do this because these students had access to me before, during, and after school in my classroom, through my school email, or by calling to my classroom phone. But to my former students they did not have this accessibility, nor did they need it. In fact, it would be inappropriate to have former students calling my classroom, coming regularly to visit my classroom (although once in a while to catch up I think is okay) or emailing me. I think these types of communications should be academic. Facebook, on the other hand, would be a way to keep in touch with former basketball players whom I coached. They could tell me about upcoming games. Maybe that student who's father committed suicide just wants to check in like they did the school year when the tragedy happened.
I am starting to ramble so I will try and finish. Is Facebook outside of the scope of a public educator? I am conflicted with this, although I accept the current Alpine School District policy and see the merit and judgement for the policy. What is next? There are some really neat web 2.0 tools out there that are already great for college students and professors (youtube, blogs, wikis, etc.). Are these doomed at the secondary level? I know that the Facebook account I maintained was strictly blocked as to what my former students could see, hear, or watch with regards to my personal life. This ensured my privacy and the appropriateness of what my former students knew about me. It maintained a level of integrity which is vital in the educational profession. Will the present trends in school district policy hamper more appropriate classroom web 2.0 tools like wikispaces or classroom blogs?
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